Protesting Humanity

So Trump is in town for a fundraiser and the city is going crazy. People are making big signs to “protest” him, and I’m wondering when did San Antonio become such a hateful city.

Seriously, protesting is a means for social change, like when people protest war and stuff. Protesting the existence of another human being is pointless and your hateful signs won’t change anyone’s opinion of him.

You’re not “protesting” Donald Trump, you’re just standing outside a building and saying you hate another human being and you have no manners. Congratulations, you just lowered yourself to HIS level of hate speech.

If you want to protest something try marching against gun violence, environmental issues, or equal pay for women - that is something tangible you can change. You can’t change Donald Trump or the people who want to vote for him.

Let your “protest” against the ideology of someone running for civic office be your vote for a different candidate, but I’m willing to bet none of the sign carriers have yet to donate one single minute of their time to campaign for the candidate they want in office.

So no, I won’t be at the Donald Trump “protest” today, I’ll just simply wish him well and say he won’t get my vote because he doesn’t represent the America I want to live in. But then again neither does Hillary Clinton, they’re both horrible people. So I think I’ll just make a big sign that says “Armagedon outa here.”

“Love one another.”  - Jesus

How Voting Trump Defines America

It’s been an especially contentious election year, mostly because of Donald Trump. You either love him or hate him, but I’m not going to debate the merits of whether he should or should not be President (he shouldn’t).

The phenomenon of Donald Trump says two very interesting things about this country –

1. We’re Tired of Politics as Usual:  It’s true, people are seriously fed up with the government and entrenched politicians who don’t seem to really give a rat’s rump about the people they’ve sworn to serve.

This was very evident here in San Antonio during the mayoral race last year. Our old mayor, Julian Castro was called to Washington to become the Secretary of Housing and Urban development. To finish his current term, the city called upon a nice lady named Ivy Taylor. She wasn’t a well-known name and certainly wasn’t a career politician so it was a surprising move.

Fast forward to the election last year. Ivy decided to make it official and see if the people of San Antonio wanted her to continue as Mayor, so she threw her hat in the ring.

Enter Leticia Van de Putte, and longtime politician who had been in the House and Senate but was currently out of a political job, so she decided to make a run at Texas government and ran for Lt Governor. She lost, bad.

It was evident she had no desire to get a real job so she immediately ran for Mayor of San Antonio.

It seemed the outcome of the election was a foregone conclusion. Van de Putte was a political powerhouse with a lot of rich, powerful friends, plus she had every major endorsement you could get, like the police and fire departments.

She lost.

The people of this city made it known that they were tired of the old guard. Career politicians aren’t being effective and the rancor between the Democrats and Republicans has reached a point that nothing gets done, and San Antonio didn’t want someone who was part of that in their city.

This seems to be what is happening with the presidential election. People are tired of the same old politics, so they’re throwing their votes at a person who isn’t a politician and says things that a lot of people are thinking. Unfortunately, he’s also saying a lot of things people aren’t thinking, and shouldn’t be said out loud in any setting.

But the fact is, people are voting for him and if the Republicans were self-aware at all they’d realize they need to regroup, restructure and remake their party.

Oh, the Democrats don’t get a pass on this either. The fact that a Socialist is getting their parties votes should tell them some things about their party too.

2. America has no Manners: I’ve been noticing this for a few years now. I do a lot of blog reading and I’ve been alarmed how the content has slowly become vulgar. People have stopped caring about how they speak and the words they use. It’s rare that I read an online article without the author using a lot of blue words.

Personally, I start reading an article and if I run into a f**k I stop reading. The reason isn’t because I’m a prude, it’s because people who use those kinds of words are too stupid to know the real words, which means they’re too stupid to write an article of any real intelligence that I would benefit from.

“Vulgarity is no substitute for wit.” -Maggie Smith

Trump says things that are ugly, mean spirited, and downright vulgar at times; but for some reason people are eating it up. Why, because the U.S. has become a country with no couth. 

There are myriad problems with this, but the one that applies to this article is that the President of the United States is a world figure. A statesman. Someone who needs couth. 

Conducting world affairs and meetings with Kings and Prime Ministers and other Presidents requires a great deal of formality and respect. I don’t think Trump has any of those qualities, and the fact that people are voting for him shows that we don’t either.

What the phenomenon of Donald Trump defines about America is that it’s changing. People want something different, for better or worse, they just want something that isn’t the same as what they have now, and since this is a country of majority rule all I can say is that if this is what the people want then the rest of us will have to accept it.

"God, please let your gracious spirit fill this country and let us become a people who understand that words matter. Jesus knew this and chose His words carefully. Help us do the same."